‘The Last Ride’ Hank Williams Film to be Released June 6th
The Last Ride, a movie depicting the final days of Hank Williams, will finally be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 6th through Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. Starring Henry Thomas (the kid from ET), Kaley Cuoco (Big Bang Theory), Jesse James, Fred Dalton Thompson, and Fred Tolobowsky, The Last Ride follows the last 72 hours of Hank’s life as he rode in the back his 1951 powder blue Cadillac convertible.
On January 1st 1953, Hank Williams was scheduled to perform in Canton, OH. Because of bad weather, he couldn’t fly as planned, and hired college student Charles Carr to drive him. Hank suffered from chronic back problems, and had injected himself with morphine during the trip from Knoxville, TN and also was drinking alcohol. Hank Williams died of heart failure sometime that night with varying accounts of exactly where and when, though a gas station in Oak Hill, WV is given credit as Hank’s final destination. Hank was 29.
Fans of Hank Williams have waited patiently for news of when the movie would be available to the public since 2011 when information about the film first began to surface. Last year the movie saw a limited theatrical release in 15 select cities, but the new Blu-ray/DVD release will be the first time the film is made available to everyone. The soundtrack for the movie featuring 22 Hank songs sung by various artists was released on June 19th, 2012.
The Blu-ray/DVD will also include a featurette on the making of the film, and will be available through most retailers. Retail price will be DVD $22.98, Blu-ray $29.99.
Hank’s daughter Jett Williams has said of the movie:
I’ve been given a preview of it, my husband and I. In the movie, they never mention the name Hank Williams, he never sings and he never strums the guitar. That sounds just as strange as it can be but, what it is, the guy who is playing my Dad is traveling under an assumed name and so you know who it is. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in I can’t remember when.
…this one scene”¦they’re in the Cadillac, trying to get to the shows and they’re trying to move everything along. They end up getting behind a truck of pigs on a back road. So, here’s the Cadillac and you’re looking at the rear end of the pigs. They’re honking and the guy playing my Dad’s having a fit and the driver’s trying to get around them and they’re playing On the Sunny Side of Life. Just cracks me up. It’s all these little double entendres that are working through the movie that are just so clever. You see a real personal side of my Dad.
May 15, 2013 @ 4:57 pm
Will you be reviewing the film, Trigger? I’d love to hear how faithful it is to ol’ Hank’s story (and if D.A.C. classic, “The Ride” is featured).
May 15, 2013 @ 5:10 pm
I believe my copy is on the way. Have been waiting to see this movie for going on 3 years.
May 15, 2013 @ 5:15 pm
Neat. It’ll be interesting to read a film review. Why do you think the movie gestated for so long? Lack of interest or something?
May 15, 2013 @ 5:27 pm
There’s been a few films like this over the years. “Bloodworth” that starred Dwight Yoakam and Kris Kristofferson and had a small appearance by Hank Williams III we waited for years to see. “Last Rites of Ransom Pride” that was co-written by Ray Wylie Hubbard and starred Dwight Yoakam and Kristofferson was the same thing. It seems a lot easier to get a movie made these days than to get one distributed. Both of those movies were a little disappointing in my opinion, but not awful or anything. One could surmise that “The Last Ride” was held up because of bad early reviews, but you never know. It is being distributed by a big Hollywood house. I’m looking very forward to it, and will let the film speak for itself.
May 15, 2013 @ 5:55 pm
Yeah. Having once been an aspiring filmmaker (and consequently being a little familiar with the business), I think that my theory is somewhat correct. It’s a general lack of interest, it seems. Crap, I doubt the general populace would even know who Hank Williams JUNIOR is (well, before his recent political problems, anyway), much less his dad (or his son). For instance, I fully expected “Country Strong,” Gwyneth Paltrow’s foray into the genre, to bomb at the box office and it did (and no, I’m not referring to quality as much as I am commercial appeal). In fact, I was genuinely surprised that a show like “Nashville” would get on the air until I watched part of an episode and realized that the music sounded like it was ripped from a Lady Antebellum album (why I didn’t expect that, I don’t know). Plus, the fact that there’s apparently no “performances” in the film probably made it look completely unsellable even to the target audience, much less the general public.
May 15, 2013 @ 7:01 pm
Great news and cool that it will be available relatively soon. And I heard it here first. This really IS a news site! 🙂
May 16, 2013 @ 12:04 am
Great news! Wonder if we’ll see it over here in the UK? I’ve been nagging my local arts cinema to show it on the big screen but maybe I’ll have to put up with it on the ol’ TV instead!
May 16, 2013 @ 7:06 am
I just added it to my Netflix queue. Thanks for the heads-up.
Acca Dacca, interesting viewpoint. I think Country Strong was destined to bomb because Paltrow was miscast. Crazy Heart did well so the subject matter is of interest to the general public.
May 16, 2013 @ 9:08 pm
“Crazy Heart did well so the subject matter is of interest to the general public.”
Not hardly. Country music has only been “mainstream” for about 25 years at this point; Garth Brooks made it into what it is today. Before him, Country albums struggled to go Gold (i.e. sell over 500,000 copies), much less Platinum (i.e. over 1,000,000) as other genres, such as Pop and Rock consistently did and still do. After Brooks, the genre became more interesting to the public (and keep in mind that this is POP Country that we’re talking about), and even then artists still struggled to go Gold with records. There are always exceptions, but I’m speaking generally; if you look up a list of the top selling artists or albums of all time, you’ll see about 40 related to Rock, about 50 related to Pop and about 5 related to Country. Country is and has always been the least popular “mainstream” genre by far, hence why modern artists are so eager to cross over into other genres so they can widen their appeal.
Country music related films are no different. “Crazy Heart” is the exception, not the rule. Did you notice the comment by Trigger in which he implied that Country-themed films tend to get the shaft? That certainly isn’t due to “interest” from the general public. Have you ever noticed that DVD/Blu-ray covers tend to blatantly advertise Oscar nominations/wins? “Crazy Heart” was nominated for a few Academy Awards, which have ALWAYS bolstered the box office of nominated films, hence why so much stock is placed in the ceremony. The reason it did well is because it won two awards, one for Best Actor (Jeff Bridges) and one for Best Original Song (“The Weary Kind”), while also being nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Pure and simple, “Crazy Heart” was an arthouse film that pandered to the arthouse awards show, hence why it was released on December 16, 2009 in a LIMITED run, so the studio would not waste money marketing it or paying for multiple theaters to show the film. Once the film was nominated for and won awards, the release was widened, as moviegoers tend to look at awarded films and think “well it won something so it MUST be good” (and studios know this, hence why they release these films right before the Oscar season, hoping their lack of commercial appeal will be subsided by some big awards). Take the 2007 pseudo-Western “No Country For Old Men,” for example. The film bombed when it was first released, but once it gained momentum from some prestigious awards, it was re-released and became successful. All in all, “Crazy Heart” did well because of its status as a film, not because of the subject matter or the public’s “interest” in it. In fact, many critics stated that the only saving grace of the film was Jeff Bridge’s performance, not how awesome it was to see a Country music-themed film.
(And just so we’re clear, I’m not speaking to the quality of these artists or films but moreso their place in the commerical/business world).
May 16, 2013 @ 10:35 am
Hopefully it will be on netflix and I won’t have to make a trip to the video story. I can’t wait to see it.I will have to get a copy of the soundtrack as well.
May 16, 2013 @ 11:41 am
Super excited about this. I’m sure Amazon will have it available. Can’t wait.